


No Winter Lasts Forever

by bucketofbarnes



Series: Nothing Burns Like The Cold [1]
Category: Wiedźmin | The Witcher (Video Game), Wiedźmin | The Witcher - All Media Types, Wiedźmin | The Witcher Series - Andrzej Sapkowski
Genre: Gen, Missing Scene, Rescue
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-24
Updated: 2017-06-24
Packaged: 2018-11-18 13:56:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,251
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11292051
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bucketofbarnes/pseuds/bucketofbarnes
Summary: "You have to keep running Geralt. Don't stop for anything!Promise me!"Or: How Geralt escaped the Wild Hunt and ended up running in the woods near Kaer Morhen at the beginning of the first game.





	No Winter Lasts Forever

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ValmureEld](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ValmureEld/gifts).



> "We feel free when we escape - even if it be but from the frying pan to the fire." - Eric Hoffer

All he knew was the cold. A harsh, biting, bitter cold that went deep into his bones, permeating his entire being. He didn’t know why he was so cold, and to be perfectly honest, he couldn’t find it in himself to care. He felt numb, like there was a hole inside of him. Something was missing, something important, yet he didn’t know what it was. Part of him was screaming at him that he didn’t belong here, with these….. monsters surrounding him. Monsters of steel and frost. They were tall and sharp, dressed in jagged skeletal armour that reflected the light from the flames that were encompassing the small village. Screams and wails assaulted his ears as the monsters dragged people through the village. Men, women, children, the monsters didn’t seem to care, they took everyone. Those that resisted were cut down in seconds, the other villagers simply being dragged through their blood. 

A woman stumbled and fell mere feet from him. One of the monsters grabbed her harshly by the hair and tried to drag her back up. She yelped and kicked out at him, her boot thudding against his armoured shin. Losing patience, the monster growled and lopped off her head in one movement without even a moment of hesitation. Her body fell to the floor, where the hounds descended on it in a frenzy. He knew he should have felt something. Horror? Disgust? Rage? But all he could feel was that cold numbness that seemed to steal everything that should matter away from him. He could only watch as people were slaughtered right in front of him.

A small hand grabbed his and he glanced down, a hand grabbing his sword uncertainly. The hand was gripping his tightly, but it didn’t feel intentionally violent. The hand belonged to a young girl. She was dressed in filthy clothes, like she had been on the road for days, Dirt was smearing her cheeks and ashen hair was falling out of it’s tie. Green eyes gazed up at him, full of an emotion that he couldn’t identify. The girl gave him a tremulous smile before glancing at the monsters, her gaze turning as hard as stone and her eyes filling with hatred, before she tugged his hand insistently. 

He didn’t know why he followed her, but he stumbled along behind her into the woods surrounding the village. When they were deep enough into the woods that they could no longer see the flames, she stopped and turned to face him. She tugged him down so that he was kneeling at her level, so she could look into his eyes. 

“Everything will be alright Geralt, I promise.” 

Geralt?…… Was that his name? 

“I can’t take you with me, but I can send you somewhere safe. Listen to me Geralt!” She grasped his face and stared deep into his eyes, her gaze desperately begging him to listen to her every word. “They will try and follow you, to take you again. You have to promise me that you’ll keep running. Don’t stop for anything Geralt! _Promise me!_ ”

He couldn’t speak, his words caught in his throat, but he managed to give her a jerky nod. She smiled at him again, patting him affectionately on the cheek before grasping his hand once more. 

The world blurred into flashes of green and white light and Geralt found himself sprawled on an uneven ground. The girl was gone, and he was alone in middle of another forest. The heavy armour that he had been wearing was gone, leaving him in a thin shirt that was already soaked through by the heavy rain and stuck to his skin. He scrambled to his feet, stumbling and almost falling before regaining his footing. Geralt practically hugged a tree as he was almost overcome with nausea as his head span. 

His head jerked up as he heard the pounding of hooves, a thunderous noise that echoed throughout the woods.

_“.…they will try and follow you.…”_

He let go of the tree and started to move in the opposite direction of the noise, swaying while he walked as the world still span around him.

_“.….keep running. Don’t stop…..”_

The words echoed loudly in his skull and he began to jog, attempting to shake off the haze that still clung to his mind. As the thundering of hooves gradually became louder, he began to sprint. There was a sharp pain and he felt blood run down his arm as a branch whipped his arm and split the skin. He didn’t stop to see, he just kept running. He _had_ to keep running. He had _promised_. He could hear the sounds of hooves behind him, loud and thundering, now accompanied by shouts and the whinnying of the horses. He didn’t know who they were, what they wanted, but that voice was now _screaming_ at him to keep running and not to stop.

Geralt didn’t know how long he had been running before whatever was chasing him began to quiet, eventually disappearing. His body ached and he wanted to stop, especially now that the danger was gone. However, the voice had told him not to stop. The voice was the only thing he had to cling to right now, and so he obeyed it.

He kept running.

He stumbled over countless tree roots, slipped in mud, trampled grass and splashed through deep puddles. His legs burned, his lungs heaved, his heart pounded. The cold that still resided within his bones was made worse by the heavy downpour. The forest blurred into shades of green and brown as he ran, the rain and fog masking everything so he could only just manage to see what was in front of him. The strong wind burned his eyes and sent branches towards him, cruelly lashing his skin. But still, he kept running.

There was a flash of movement through the trees and his heart jumped into his throat. He tried to stop and run in another direction, but he slid in the mud and landed heavily on the ground. A silhouette appeared through the fog. A man? 

It came closer and he could see that it was indeed a man, dressed in strange armour, with two blades strapped to his back. The man’s most striking feature however was his eyes, a burning amber that penetrated the fog like a beacon. The man’s eyes widened and his mouth opened in shock.

“Geralt?” He choked out. A hand reached uncertainly towards him, as if the man couldn’t believe his eyes.

Lost in his panic as he was, Geralt just scrambled back to his feet and ran. What if this man was with those monsters? He had to keep going. But when could he stop?

“Geralt! Wait!” 

He could hear the man pursuing him, almost right behind him and he almost sobbed in frustration. _Why couldn’t they just leave him alone?_

“Geralt!”

He tripped on the uneven ground and grunted in pain as he hit the dirt again, the foliage and rocks covering the ground scraping the skin on his bare forearms. This time, he couldn’t find it in himself to rise to his feet again. He lay in the shallow puddle in the grass, panting and trembling in exhaustion. He could only beg the voice in his head to forgive him for being so weak as two figures appeared above him, staring down at him with golden eyes, before the darkness finally overtook his vision and he passed out.

**Author's Note:**

> The whole Geralt was working for the Red Riders at one point thing really fascinated me so I just had to write something for it.
> 
> I'm gifting this fic to ValmureEld because she's the one that really got me into The Witcher fandom with her fics. So thanks ValmureEld and I hope you enjoy!
> 
> You can see more content, or make requests at my tumblr: bucketofbarnes.tumblr.com/


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